To be honest a surprise that Welbeck came in the place of Walcott. But I think this is mostly down to Welbeck being a harder worker defensively than Walcott usually is. And maybe also to avoid Walcott getting injured again. Alexis not on the bench or in the team so our best player and top scorer still out injured.

Not much happening in the opening minutes but suddenly Arsenal burst forward over the left but Tottenham can clear and Tottenham on the counter forcing Ospina to make a save and an injury. Monreal being the translator with the doctor. But he seemed fit enough to continue.

Welbeck then getting away from Rose and his cross towards Giroud was decent. Still don’t know if Giroud tried to shoot or to pass but the ball came in front of Özil who finished it in one time superbly. 0-1 to the Arsenal after some 10 minutes.

Rose then with a low shot but Ospina stopping the effort and claiming the following corner. The game opening up with a few handball appeals in the Tottenham penalty area but the ref waved them all away correctly. Rose again with a shooting chance but the ball went wide this time. Welbeck being a bit sloppy on a few occasions in his passing making things a bit dangerous for Arsenal. A bit rusty we can assume. A bit of sloppy play in general around the 25th minute from several Arsenal players.

Ospina again having to make a good save from a long distance shot. Tottenham pushing forward and Arsenal leaning backwards around the half hour mark. A few half chances for Tottenham but Ospina not really tested in this phase of the match. Arsenal with a counter but the ball got stuck between the feet of Özil so he couldn’t get it to Cazorla. Kane stopping another possible counter at the expense of a foul on Giroud and a yellow card. Bentaleb kicking Ramsey on the chest from behind but this time the yellow card was not produced.

A wrong offside decision against Tottenham but Kane his shot went wide. Walker then with a dive winning a free kick and a yellow card against Monreal. Bellerin then cleanly winning the ball but again the gives a foul to Tottenham in the closing stages of the first half. And then Welbeck goes in the book when Rose goes down in a spectacular way. Ospina claims the final free kick in the first half. Welbeck being furious about the Rose dive and making it clear to him and the ref when going in the dressing room.

Tottenham as expected with some early pressure but Lloris being the first keeper to make a save from a shot from Cazorla. Koscielny then with a foul when he only made contact with Dembele and a yellow card. Tottenham get a corner and Ospina can save the first effort but ball ends up in front of Kane who can tap it in rather simply. 1-1 after 56 minutes.

Arsenal again not calm enough and it took a good save from Ospina to stop an effort from Dembele after Arsenal giving the ball away a few times near their own penalty area. Rose then putting his studs on the achilles of Giroud unpunished. Welbeck then with a great shot but Lloris equal to it putting it in corner. The corner is headed in by Koscielny but again Lloris can stop it.

A corner from Tottehma is headed off the line by Coquelin and the follow up shot is stopped by Ospina. And a bit later Ospina again with a good save and he even was on hand to stop the rebound but that was offside anyway. Lamele handling the ball and the head of Monreal but that escaped the refs attention. Rosicky coming on for Cazorla who had a below his last weeks level afternoon this time.

A sharp cross from Özil but Giroud couldn’t wrap his head around the ball. Some 15 minutes to go. Walcott came on in the place of Welbeck. Yellow card for Masonwho stopped a quick free kick after a foul on Ramsey. A foul(?) when Mertesacker was pulled but ref ignored it and Tottenham could break but no end product. Giroud then getting a yellow when he came a bit late.

And then with 5 minutes to go when both teams seemed to run out of steam a cross came to the middle and Kane headed it in over Ospina. Oh F*ck. Akpom coming on in the place of Coquelin with 2 minutes on the clock. Rosicky with a volley but straight at Lloris.

A few minutes of all or nothing followed. Pressure from Arsenal completely open at the back. What else can you do. But too much up and under and scrappy football. Some yellow cards for some desperate fouls on both sides. But the score didn’t change.

This wasn’t our best match. Too many easy balls were lost. Too many players not performing as they can and in such a match that is costly. But this is football. Such things can happen. Its unfortunate that it happened in such a match. But just as after Southampton we have to pick ourselves from the ground, dust ourselves and start again. With a new run.

Let’s bring on Tuesday and Leicester. The players owe us a better performance.

74 comments to Match report : Totts v Arsenal

I’d be suprised if Atkinson gets above 20% correct for his decision making today! He seemed intent on stopping th play whenever we got ner to goal in the 2nd half. Something MUST be done because these refs are making glaringly incorrect decisions in full view of everybody, and nothing is being done about it. How Rose was NOT booked for that studs raking foul on Giroud, is beyond th scope of my sense of reason!

A less than sterling performance from our gunners but give credit to the Totts as they pressed well and imho deserved the win. One thing that made me laugh is Piers Morgan’s comments about Kane, and his having to eat his words once again.
Before the aaa choir begin their chants here, I’ll list all the reasons we lost:

1)It’s all Wenger’s fault,
2)Our starting 11 are unworthy to wear the shirt,
3)Arsenal are shit and will never win another game,
4)It all evened out in the end,
5)Here comes another Spud’sDVD……it’s all Arsene’s fault!!!

Like all great teams we move on and what will really count is where we are in the end of May.

Agree Pete, some of our players looked very rusty, especially as the game wore on.
As for the club and the standard of refereeing, unfortunately, think it would take a season out of the top four for them to act, and cannot see that happening this year, especially when you look at who we have to play. Normal service will be resumed when we play Leicester.
Not so many aaa yet, but guess they are watching their favourite team play villa.

I’m not suggesting we played well or they played better or we didn’t deserve to win. However, how quickly do the players pick up that today, the referee is going to be openly biased towards the opposition? at one stage we had committed 4 fouls for 3 yellows, they had 4 for nothing. Blimey, it’s not just us who have a go at referees – Neil Lennon had a pop at a Holywood last week for his bias towards Liverpool.

All, I’m saying is that there appears to be something decidedly bent about our national sport, and nobody does anything about it. There are people, who claim to be top class, investigative journalists, who COULD do an expose on the whole thing but they won’t. Presumably it’s because the game is all about money, and anybody in a position to report on the wrong things that go on, choose not to, because they don’t want to be seen to rock the boat due to too many vested interests.

If it were possible to apply pressure to change things, once it got to Riley and his bosses, it would again get shoved under the carpet. Half way through the 2nd half today, somebody made the comment that “Atkinson has ruined the game” and thats exactly what was scripted!

To be honest the problem is all too common place and we’re just one of many victims (yes there is no conspiracy against us, other teams blogs are almost verbatim with their complaints). Seems PGMOL are above question and do little to actually control their staff.

Not a good result unfortunately. I thought Atkinson was poor in the first half and even worse in the second. How can we play football when we are kicked round the park and then get yellow cards for phantom fouls.

The Spuds did play above themselves – they usually do for the NLD – but they can be a really dirty team when a biased or poor ref allows them to so behave.

Before we lay all the blame at the ref’s door we should remember the Ozil offside decision was wrong, replays show he was inches offside but if we’re reviewing every refereeing decision it’s only fair to include those that go for us.

Why did we lose today? Because we didn’t play well enough, the manager, the players, the coaches, they are all too blame in some way and need to make better decisions in future

The broadcast in USA had commentator repeatedly praising Atkinson for controlling the game so well! On other hand, scanning the blog headlines indicates several about dismal ref performance again by Atkinson. The majority just say Arsenal blames the ref for loss.

Saw the 1st half as needed to take my son for his guitar class. We made to many mistakes loosing the ball, specifically Danny. But then you can call him rusty as he is just back from injury. The pitch looked quite narrow width-wise and we seemed to be playing very short while they kept closing it’s down with their high pressing line. Also too much space on our right hand side for their left defence to play as a winger. We kept losing out shape. Hopefully we get this sorted next game.

This blog has been increasingly becoming a referee review only blog , regrettably.

We didn’t lose because of the referee , although he was poor as per usual against us.

We lost because our inability to hold on to the ball, make simple passes , and press as a team.

Too many simple touches and passes went astray even without being under pressure. Players not being brave enough , and getting rid of the ball as if it were contaminated with Ebola virus.

When I say press as a team , I don’t mean high up the pitch but rather in our own half. We dropped way to deep and invited the pressure needlessly.

For all the dominance, Tottenham scored their two goals because Aaron Ramsey was caught ball watching ( for the first)and turned his back on one Tottenham player he should never turn his back on, and Walcott ( for the second one) ball watching again , giving Bentaleb all the time in the world to line up the perfect cross.
Like Walter said , Walcott needs to pick up his defense . Being on the pitch for only a few minutes , he should be tearing it up . I’m not sure he broke a sweat today.

When your game plan is to drop deep and absorb the pressure ( nothing wrong with that), you still need to be able to retain the ball when in possesion, and Arsenal simply weren’t able to do that today.

We were able to ride it out last season after scoring early , but this Spurs side is better that the last year. Give them credit and let’s move on to the next game.

I have a feeling with Atkinson that he wants to be in the middle of the things and it’s never a good thing.

Spuds looked more sharp and more into this game. We suffered from a complacency given that we played against the small team.

I think Ospina did well again and produced a few fantastic saves.

Playing Özil on the left or down the middle? Yes, he has scored for the third time in a row but it’s something else when either Alexis or Welbeck play on the left. They give more width and pace than Özil enabling Giroud more space in the middle.

Ramsey needs just one bloody goal or an assist and he’ll get to his best again. He always gives 100 percent of himself but sometimes the pure desire is not enough if the ball doesn’t obey your orders.

Beating Leicester and Boro next week should be enough to bring us back to the right track.

@Tom
Well said.. It’s just too easy to blame the ref after every loss. We were just not upto it today. As much as it hurts to say it, Spurs were the better team. Atkinson did miss the yellows for Rose (on Giroud) and Mason (persistent fouling- came later than it should have). The Monreal yellow was a joke though he blocked Walker (not a dive imo). That said, he could have very easily sent Welbeck off- though his first yellow was soft. Penalties- two tough calls with the Spurs handball coming before that foul on Kane from Ospina. Both were not awarded- marginal calls but correct calls. The stats might show an overall bias to Spurs but the ref did not influence the game.

This game probably showed us that conceding possession doesn’t really suit us all the time. And this was very different from the City game. Probably more similar to Anfield- Kane being the difference between a draw and a loss. Getting used to this setup will take time.

All said and done, it is funny to see how one game defines people’s opinions. A week ago, Cazorla and Ozil were world class and today, they are average, overpriced and overpaid players! Bellerin was a maturing defender and today, cannot be trusted with defensive duties. And what of Ospina?- though he didn’t exactly inspire confidence with his handling early on, his saves definitely prevented them from scoring earlier than they did. People blind to that have been telling us about that ‘gap’ between Lloris and Ospina- a very unfair comparison as Lloris had little to do. Ramsey has not had a good season so far and he did have a poor second half- but the kind of stick he has been getting defies all logic. The whole team was out of sorts today and it wasn’t all his fault. Some of our fans are so annoyingly fickle!

This game was not a referendum on Wenger. All losses tend to be just that, for some. Hopefully this is just a Southampton like blip and we come out stronger on the other side.

Tom, some very valid points. I do not think anyone can deny we were poor, wenger said so himself. I am not going to have a go at individuals, that was a collective failing but some performances were so bad they bordered on bizarre. A bad day at the office, too many have been injured and not yet firIng on all cylinders , yes we shot ourselves in the foot as we sometimes do, and yes we struggle in early games up against teams that set themselves up in a certain way. But the refereeing performances we are these days getting on a regular basis do not help. The ref did not lose us the game, but he certainly helped tip the odds. If we had tried to match them physically, one of ours would have seen red, The whole world now knows that if you kick Arsenal, there is a good chance even a lesser team may get the required result, and an even better chance the kicking will for a large part of the game go unpunished. Whereas our players seem to have to do very little, in some cases nothing at all to pick up cards. I am not sure how a team is supposed to combat that week in week out.
Wenger summed it up perfectly……we were poor, and the ref was on our level. Personally, I think he is just bent
But ultimately, agree with Dan, we will be ok as long as we see this as a bit of a wake up call. Expect them to really go for it in upcoming games

Didn’t watch but reading from a few sources Atkinson had a stinker. Again.

Too many unfamiliar names on here today, had to check the URL twice just to be sure I hadn’t visited the wrong site. And before anyone cries foul they’re mostly positive comments too, I must add. BUT; where were you all when the team stuffed the likes of City or Villa? Come on, we need everyone in good and bad times 🙂 COYG!!

When one or two players play poorly its explainable. When most of them do it is because they were out thought and out fought. Wenger has some neck moaning when he is responsible for motivation and tactics. As the manager the buck stops with him. Another bright young manager with the measure of him has emerged.

Yes thom b, these as you call them bright young managers do emerge from time to time, have their day, wenger ultimately sees them off and normal service resumes. Have heard it all before about the likes of Laudrup, Moyes, Rogers, Avb, Martinez, the end is always the same.Look at how many spurs managers has wenger seen off . This manager will be no different.
The only managers in this league who consistently do better than wenger do so because they have vastly superior financial resources. And that’s how it will remain until he calls it a day. But I am sure you know that.

There can be no excuses. None at all. After watching us play the first 15 mins i was sure we were going to beat them.
Then we got the 3rd yellow, and all of a sudden we started playing differently.
From then it all went downhill and i stood there watching with mouth wide open, not checking what had gone wrong.
We lost our sharpness, and gave the game to Spuds. They did not play that well, except for two or three flashes.
It looked like the days of when we buckled under pressure you know, just gave up, but i could not see the pressure we were under, ok the ref was a little off, but we’ve had worse ones on the day, so i ask, where was the pressure that we buckled? Where was it? Was it off field?

I do not expect Arsenal to buckle anymore, we’ve solved that problem.
So i am at a loss as to how we could throw away the game.

When we win its because the players perfomed very well. Then we lose woefully and its because the ref was bad. This is really getting on my nerves. Did we even attempt to win this game. Honestly Noooooo.
Our tactics was flat,the players interpretation of the tactics, flat,motivation, flat.
The ref made some mistakes but that did not affect the result imao.
Ozil was even lucky cos he was offside but i know no one is going to mention it. Lets accept the fact that they were better in everything and move on instead of moaning about referees.
We can correct this on tuesday.come on arsenal!!!

Just a bad day para, not sure we buckled as much as our MF did not really turn up. Very hard to get forward momentum when they were pulling our players back off the ball. But worryingly, we do every so often put in these performances against fairly average sides, especially away. That said, I would add, I think there is every right to moan about the referee on such a performance. This is a ref we have history with.Why should we just accept it and sweep it under the carpet? And who knows what effect it has on our players when mason commits 10 fouled before a booking, and,three of ours get booked for nothing. Yes, they have to be professional, but must be demoralising. I know of certain clubs and managers that would be extremely vocal if they were subjected to such refereeing on an all too regular basis. Some want to blame everything on the manager, but poor refereeing is a serious issue for this club. However, today, the ref was helped by a very very poor Arsenal performance.

Think we are good enough to get in the top four no matter what they do Andrew, especially if we can sort out the injuries, but can see your point. I am sure the media and many others would love us out of the top four, but our remaining fixtures are relatively kind. Chelsea and City are most likely out of our reach, but if the pgmo are up to something other than referees bias, my guess that would be ensuring Utd get into the top four…..EPL brand enhancement and all that. And we are a threat to Utd, probably more so than the others fighting for third and fourth. But have a feeling ultimately, both us and Utd will make it.

Lol Walter! Think we will see even more aaa tomorrow, think most of them out celebrating their favourite team being virtually gifted the title today!
But you are right, we lost a match, but life goes on. For various reasons, this team have yet to find complete consistency, but it is coming. We should win quite a few of the games coming up.
Bad day, bad performance, bad ref…..just sometimes happens that way, but there is always the next game. Let the Spuds have their DVD they get every few years, wenger and co will just move on.

Then even the press in the press conference mentioned the foul on Giroud by Rose.

This is not fair refereeing and to combat that our players have to be at superhuman level every match. They were against Man City, they were against Aston Villa, and they weren’t today. Let’s hope they are again on Tuesday and Sunday.

We couldn’t play, how can we play when the ref stopped anything we did? and also spuds were up for it and fouling diving our every move and countering. on top of that were were not on form makes it stink even more yet we still scored against 12 men. Very double standard referring today spud should have been down to 9 men at least see how they would have scored then. We at least deserved a draw. We lost the plot as there were way to many wrong decisions it got to the point how do we play?

I don’t think it is fair to say we lost the plot, we lost the circumstance. We know the plot. Losing is something that happens. The only thing to do is to try to win the next game.

Managers are not paid to be honest. Managers are paid to get results. And to get results in a world where random chance can easily wipeout almost any amount of hard work.

AW does not get any help from the media, the FA or anyone else, when Mike Riley’s 😈 troops do their thing. If he says anything directly, he gets sanctioned. The only people who can say something, are us, the fans. Really, the problem is the media not doing what it should be doing. But someone is instructing the media that their job is to see advertising, not present news, and so all we get in the news is “stories” (fiction).

Now is the time to pursue truth. If the media moves to robotic “reporters”, their goals will be programmed in, and the pursuit of truth is not likely to be on their agenda.

Losing was not nice, losing by only a single goal is useful. Chelsea won, which isn’t useful. ManCity tied Hull (way to go Hull!). Southampton won by a single point. Everton and Liverpool tied. We are still in the thick of things at the top, and lots of games to go. What’s important, is the next game is a win. Gosh it would be nice to get a personal report about the U21 at Newcastle on Monday, but it doesn’t look like we can get anything other than the regular news.

I am hoping for West Ham to beat ManU. To me, this is tomorrow. To the UK, it is today. If they can’t beat them, hold them to a tie.

And we’ll move on from there. And try to ignore the aaaaaaaaaa. Sort of like sheep, except without the leading ‘b’. 🙂

Yes we were turned over by a more virulent side , one that played with more urgency and had a greater will to win. Yes Atkinson was poor ( I was spitting feathers )but the more we protest , the more it appears that we are displaying copious amounts of sour grapes . Time to shut up, wipe our mouths and move on.

Do you think the teams the anti wenger types most admire….ie Utd , Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern or especially Chelsea would just shut up and accept referees like that? If it was a one off, that would be one thing, but it is not.

I think managers have their hands tied by rules such as the FA has, about commenting on referees.

For the various football asociations, the rule is there for a reason. The decision of the referee is final. Which is wonderful when it works.

The system is vaguely like: they will not say a darned thing about decisions that should have gone against them (if in the official record because the referee did something), and they will doubly not say anything about decisions that should have gone against them, because the referee didn’t do anything. They will talk about decisions that should have gone for them, that are in the referees actions. They will not talk about decisions which should have gone against them, where are not mentioned.

In essence, all managers are expected by the owners of clubs, to not be forthright about how the game developed. To be honest about what was called when referees are imperfect, leads to sanctions.]

The various FA would very much like for referees to be perfect, and if not perfect to make few serious mistakes. And their laws by and large assume that is true.

When it comes to professional leagues, there gets to be a considerable amount of money involved. I suspect most FAs pay their top person, perhaps something on the order of what the average labourer might receive. But because so much more money is involved, we have to make these adminstrators millionaires. Every year. Get the payment schedule in order, put the excess money into helping produce coaches and referees. Oh, but XYZ from megaCorp won’t work for that little? Gee too bad, you don’t need XYZ from megaCorp, you just need an executive from a FA doing the same thing, to do his job, with the money figures shifted a little. The work is exactly the same.

Going back to managers, and the output of games played. Yes, managers are controlled as to what they can say. Say the wrong thing, and the FA will sanction you.

I think the converse is true. Say things you didn’t need to say, is going to buy you more enemies than it buys you friends.

2-1 is not a conceisive victory in football, especially when refereeing decisions are not uniform. Your players appreciate being talked up, everyone else is just digging a deeper hole for you. I thought Wenger was wonderful in how he talked about Kane. Would you see Ferguson talk about an opposition player that way? I doubt it.

I think the press has done themselves a huge disservice, in getting to the point where ownership is now considering using robots to find news. (And this is not programs, this is actual robots going out into public.)

In sports, the media is for most purposes the only driving force to keep things honest. It is readily apparent that most sports whorenalists have bought into selling whatever the business manager says needs to be sold.

What can members of the public do, when the governing body is unfair and the media is only concerned with selling advertsing? The only thing that comes to my mind, is physical violence against officials. And not too long after, the game is shut down because nobody wants to be an official.

The problems with the game, are for the most part due to the media being more interested in selling advertising, than doing their job.

Wake up media! Do what you are supposed to! And get rid of all those stupid muppets! If regular media people can’t figure out how to describe the game, find different people who can. You don’t need muppets to describe a game while it happens, or after it is finished.

I feel so sad for us to av lost a game of such magnitude. But, it was pleasing to see that the lads gave their all to the end. A special mention 4 sweet Ozil in particular – he did one hell of a job covering 4 Monreal and pressuring the right flank players. Onwards and Upwards the mighty GUNNERS.

It is disappointing to lose to the spuds but not surprising with Atkinson controlling the camber of the pitch. I hope the FA will look into the Rose studs on Girouds calf incident. Hope springs eternal! In my opinion we played well but were fouled regularly & robbed of possession. Whenever they had a chance they went to ground & got the ball back courtesy of the whistle. Mason & Rose should have had red cards at some point before the equaliser. That will not happen while PGMO provide the FA with cheats.

Arsenal play a fair honest game & do not resort to cheating, so we have to accept the odd loss to teams that do not have the flair to win fairly.

What is interesting is that if West Ham win their next 3 & Liverpool win their next 2, our chances suddenly improve. It is going to be an interesting couple of weeks. Arsenal are in an excellent position as long as we can stay injury free & focused.

@Mandy Dodd
I do agree, but we know the enemy i say, we know how the refs are going to be, but we just gave in after we saw how it was going to go.
This was not a usual derby between us at all, fight to the end etc, we caved in, to the ref not to spuds. It was a clever move by the ref (not the usual clear bad reffing) to disable us with 3 (non)yellows early, of course we are going to be cautious.

We took our foot off the gas and caved in, that is what i saw. But it seemed a sort of resignation type of cave in and not a performance type if you know what i mean.

Unfair treatment by the referee does demoralize any player. The worst part is there is nothing the players, the manager of the club can do anything about it. I saw the game and it was worse than the Chelsea one. Martin Atkinson will soon have a blood stain on his hands if he keeps doing like this. The way he responded to Totty antics was pure evil.

Totes not so Tiny? Not sure if they were that good really. The stats show that they had the bulk of possession but then so did Oil City and we won there. 5 yellows? The score was reflective of the ref having a stinker and Kane a bllnder. Not even a team loaded with talent goes unbeaten. Real Madrid were beaten 4-0 by Atletico Madrid. The bright side of that score for us is that they will probably make a crazy offer for Kane and he’ll be their next galactico. I’m sure the press will pick up on that one soon.

Basic problem was we did not control the ball well. Lots of poor passes and lots of communication issues between players. Also as the game went on Arsenal was defending deeper and deeper. This made it easier for Tots.

The ref was bad. Gave yellow cards to Arsenal that were not and failed to give ones to Tots that clearly were worthy of yellow. He also allowed a lot of obstruction by tot in the second half.

Its difficult to play on an uneven pitch. I said to a guy sitting next to me after the first half -“we may lose this game coz I know the ref”. I don’t accept that possession is the core of our game anymore, when we move forward, we create chances. That’s how we should learn to play. Madrid lost yesterday, and it was a consolation coz it just showed what untold has been trying to say! Injuries cost teams games! Simple! But they still make us look good. We didn’t lose by so much

I’m not having a go at individual Arsenal players. We win as a team and we lose as one, but when Arsene Wenger and the coaching staff prep the tape for the video session, they will address individual failings that lead to Tottenham goals and so can we, without vilifying the players.

Ramsey had a poor game I thought, his passing was off( as was most of his teammates), and his ball control let him down as well. It could happen to any player, but what you do off the ball is just as important. Arsene Wenger will be most annoyed with him for losing Kane in the penalty box for the first Spurs goal. This is something they would’ve talked about and spent time preparing for.

I also mentioned Walcott in my original post and his lack of effort I thought.
I’m willing to give him a pass for not being sharp going forward, after all he’s just come back from a serious long term injury, but not for his work rate.

If you are going to talk trash before a derby day, you better be ready to back it up on the pitch during the game.
And that’s another thing, too many Arsenal players stoke up the rivalry and then disappear on the match day.
If you are going to talk the talk , you better be willing to walk the walk.

Alexis was a big miss of course , but what we really missed in the middle of the park was the combative presence of Jack Wilshere.
Without those two , there was simply not enough intensity from Arsenal squad when faced with Pochetino’s high pressing game.
He did it to us when in charge of Southompton and we had problems dealing with it then . That’s why I thought Arsene’s tactics were spot on but too many players just went missing.

Yes Tom, Alexis a huge miss, seem to have got used to playing with him in the team…..and maybe a bit reliant on him, for inspiration, as well as his play. Thought Ox a bit of a miss as well in that game, and as you mention, Jack, though think Jack could easily have seen red if wound up by Mason. Agree that wenger got the right tactics, but it was the execution that went wrong. I like this new approach, it is more cautious, presumably designed to help stop the away thrashings, but it seems we are not quite there yet , as this side of our game is a work in progress. These things take time, especially with injuries, and players not yet match fit. But overall, have been impressed with Wengers willingness to adapt things a bit, we are not going to win the league this year, and probably not the Champions league either, but still think we have things to look forward to this season. Have a feeling Next season is when we are going to start properly reaching the potential of this team.
Hope your Sunday is less busy!

Atually this loss may be a blessing in disguise as ,when we lose one we often come back and win a series, either out of shame,frustration or the realisation that we can do better and are determined to do so. We will also have Alexis back and some of our other wounded are due back as well, plus Walcott and Ozil seem to be getting back into form once again.
We will never be given a level playing field by the PGMO and so we had better learn to live with that as a fact of EPL life. This season in particular a few clubs seem to be far more conscious of the abysmal officiating provided by the PGMO and the silver lining in this is the possibility that clubs will start demanding better and more varied officials for their games.

Omg, we will one day get a level playing field, but it will be a day when Arsene Wenger is not our manager, when Mike Riley is not head of the pgmo and answerable to Scudamanc, it will be a day when the media doesn’t indulge in covering up what has been going on, and a day when FIFA cease to be corrupt, and the authorities get on top of match fixers, rogue agents and illegal bookmakers…..which probably means the day after hell freezes over.

What about the sea of red cards, gooners? Is it not time to flash ’em at the Ems? Do you see what they’ve done to abet Manure, with a shovel full delivered via Clattenburg, the day after Atkinson did his assignment? If we’re being shut out of the big tent, is it within us to show some cards rather than go out with the customary gnashing of teeth and cheerful wait till next years?

Van Persie looks well past his best. He should have had at least a yellow. Shaw should have had a straight red rather than a second yellow and Rooney should have had a second yellow for continued dissent over the Shaw dismissal.

Their only good performance was De Gea. Gutted that they fluked an equaliser, so that Neville could churn out all the cliches about picking up points when not playing well being a mark of a winning team etc.

Yep, think Clattenberg was under orders, he set up on some dubious punishment for attending a concert ….when we all know his real crime was letting Leicester come from behind to score five against Utd, something that would have really up set his boss and his bosses boss.didnt see the game today, but heard RVP should have gone earlier in the game. I might be naive, but I am convinced we will be ok for the top four, mainly due to our quality and our run in, but the refs are not going to make it easy. Wenger knows how to get us at the top table , and maybe this is our reward for the club staying silent? Who knows. I think their priority is getting Utd in the top four, then let us and the rest scrap it out, although it is clear some refs and media would prefer Liverpool or Spurs to us. As has been posted, yesterday is a wake up call, wenger needs to find a balance between really going for teams, and defending, we got it right at city and wrong yesterday. Agree on the red cards, but too many just want to blame wenger for everything rather than other things this team are having to contend with.

Sounds like pressure was being applied on clatternburg to ensure utd got something out of that game. I don’t recall the mirror ever doing anything like this when we have faced referees like taylor who always seems to send an Arsenal player off each time he does our match.

Re the comparison between our City game & yesterday’s match. One difference was that City played football with some fouling but not excessive; the Totts were fouling very excessively and deliberately as part of their pressing game – and were allowed to do so. Mason & Rose amongst others had a charmed life, e.g.

Goroud seemed to be fouled almost every time he challenged for a header & had his ankles deliberately kicked twice & stamped on once – “not seen” by the idiot Atkinson – but don’t expect retrospective action from the den of vipers that the PGMO has become.

I agree we were not at our best yesterday, but it is difficult to quantify how well we played when the official disregards his responsibilities, allows us to be kicked off the ball – and then gives us yellows for imaginary fouls – if we had kicked back how many reds would we have received?

Welbeck’s barge on Rose which was called a foul (yellow?) was simply Dembele’s main technique on Cazorla, barging. Nothing wrong with that, we all love a bit of barging* save for when one team are allowed to barge in a game of football and the other isn’t it’s all a little, well, a little bit incongruous. And obvious! Like watching a notional race of nags involving a horse from Godolphin stables. What! Neigh! It could never happen here. Don’t be silly.

*as opposed to more excessive “Argie-Bargie” which as you all know is the technical term for the type of partisan fouling that the PGMO believes is exclusive to Great Blighty and PGMO Rules football – I won’t tell them about S.American footy if you won’t, I wouldn’t want to be bursting any bubbles on the exclusive “product” that they are so keen on marketing…

Was watching the game with some Arsenal friends (not aaa but not too far off) as soon as I question the ref I get the old “you can’t just blame the ref” I argue that I am not just blaming the ref, but we were poor and their right flank in particular had the freedom of the pitch all game, but the ref was also poor. I think key reasons for the loss are:

A) We were poor in possession.
B) Were booked for nearly every tackle so were never competitive enough.
C) Didn’t get big decision (penalty close call)
D) Tottenham were up for it.
E) Tottenham were allowed to come in late and from behind without repercussion from the ref (Mason should’ve been off by about 20 min mark).
F) Kane is clinical.

Question, did the ref apply the laws of the game equally to both teams, answer is clearly no he didn’t, and as we have covered extensively this does not even itself out over the season and the refs performance clearly affects the outcome of a match, therefore a season.

Arsenal were 2nd best, no question
BUT, everybody in the ground saw BFG tumble, so it is either a foul or BFG gets booked for simulation
Atkinson did nothing !
We all tend to see our team through rose coloured specs, especially with refs
BUT, no booking for BFG, therefore the refs ability to officiate at top level must be questioned !

Interestingly, MoTD did not even mention the foul on BFG, even though the Spurs player was caught on camera “holding hands” with BFG
The BBC commentary during the game was quite clear, 100% certain it was a penalty
Think we may have been here before